


Trainee Spies

by Melpomenie



Category: The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 09:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19989745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melpomenie/pseuds/Melpomenie
Summary: Kai x Irene, except they are both students on The Library, except Kai is a spy, except Irene is 100 times dorkier, except the narrator doesn't make much sense while narrating it (because that's me and I don't know what I'm doing).





	Trainee Spies

"Now, for this week, your task will be a little different than what you are used to." The teacher paused to look at all the sparkling eyes of the Librarians-in-training before continuing. "You will need to find a book, inside The Library, that is not documented on the system."

The class was silent. No one understood very well what that meant but that didn't stop anyone from getting more excited. The Library has always been a mystery, and having the chance to explore it? Irene was barely blinking.

"And for that, you will be assigned a partner." Uh-oh. While she wasn't really a lone wolf, she worked better alone. The teacher proceeded to read the pairs out loud. "...Kai and Irene..."

Kai looked to her at the same time that she looked to him, both of them a little surprised. They have been studying in the same class for about a month now but hadn't spoken a lot. Though she was more nervous than excited, quite the opposite of him, they were curious about this new experience.

He smiled at her and waved. She nodded and looked down in response. "What a dork." He said to himself, getting even more enthusiastic. Irene was the quiet and yet confident type, and that was attractive. Oops. Going a little off-topic there. He readjusted himself in the chair and looked at her again. She was taking notes of everything the teacher was saying, too concentrated to notice his stares. He smiled.

Well, she wasn't very keen on making new friends. But if the said friend was that hot, then perhaps she wouldn't mind. She felt her cheeks turn pink at the thought. No, no, no, not right now! At the corner of her eye, she realized that he was looking at her, smiling. No distractions, Irene! What are you even thinking?

"Was I clear?" The teacher suddenly asked in a louder tone, to what the whole class answered 'yes' in a cheerful voice. "Then you are dismissed for today."

She was gathering her stuff to put in her bag when Kai started heading to her desk. Darn it. She hadn't even prepared a formal presentation of herself yet. Dammit. She dropped her pencils. She quickly got them all and shoved them carelessly inside her backpack just so that he wouldn't have the chance of having a romantic entrance like that. This isn't a romance book.

He would've helped Irene, had she not so desperately cleaned up her mess before he could arrive. He didn't know whether it had been on purpose or not. And she became even redder than before. That had to be the cutest librarian he had ever met.

"Hey." He said as he got in front of her. "I'm Kai. I don't think I've ever had the pleasure to talk to you before." He smiled for the fifteenth time and offered his hand.

"I'm Irene." She took his hand and gave it a firm and confident handshake, trying to make up for whatever had just happened. She tried to let go, but he softly kissed the top of her hand before allowing it. Great. Now he was acting like royalty or some kind of 19th-century gentleman. Absolutely barbaric. This is not a romance book. Oh, wait, she said it before.

She looked so confused and so adorable he couldn't help but laugh. This was going to be fun. He had even forgotten why he was there in the first place.

"I got your papers for you, Kai." A cheerful girl handed some documents to him and smiled far too broadly for Irene's taste. Kai has always been very popular with the girls... and some boys. Not that that bothered her. All the attention going to him meant little to no attention for her, and she preferred it that way. Except that now they were on the same team. Exciting.

"Thanks, buddy." He smiled at her and she almost melted. Then she appeared to notice Irene and her face went dark.

"Thank you." And the girl was gone.

"So how are we going to do that?" He said frowning at all the technical terms the Senior Librarians had used.

"We probably have all that we need here." She leaned over him and unconsciously took the papers from his hands to analyze it better. She seemed much more comfortable now, with work to do. "Genre, author, title... Only the alternate is missing."

"They must have this information somewhere. We could break into the teacher's room and read her documents." He looked at Irene waiting for a positive reaction, while she was waiting for him to say he was kidding.

"That's a terrible plan." He let out a nervous laugh at her ruthless stare. "Are you serious?"

"Not at all." He averted his gaze somewhere that wouldn't make him regret existing.

The final decision - Irene's plan - was to make a list of all the rooms that could have their book. After entering the first not occupied computer room they found, Irene sat and filtered the rooms.

"And that leaves us with over 500 rooms." She sighed.

"Neat." He leaned over her chair to type something on the keyboard. He smelled of the ocean. How did her mind even arrive at that conclusion? But it would certainly match his hair so dark it was almost blue, along with his stormy eyes and... "There are 150 rooms now. Does that make sense?"

"What?" She got so distracted she didn't even see what he had done. She looked up at him and accidentally bumped their noses. He stepped away, flustered, but with a silly smile to cover it up. Irene didn't have that ability. Her face was burning so hard the books around them could be set on fire. Or not. Most likely not, but that was just the way she felt like. "Yeah, that seems ok." She looked at the list on the screen, not even bothering to check what Kai had done. It couldn't be any worse than his last plan, so it should be fine.

"What now? We check every single one of these?" He didn't get flustered easily, for real. That was just a unique case. "We have the whole week, so perhaps we could make it."

"Perhaps. But that can't be what they want us to do, right? There has to be a trick." The thought ignited a fire within her, making her immediately forget past accidents. Oh, the joy of solving a charade. "Look, there is a reference list. This room has yellow sticky walls, the other one is completely made of glass... We should use that."

She was looking so determined, so caught-up on her mission. Kai wasn't there for helping The Library nor anything related. But he would feel so bad if he abandoned her right now. I mean, the job of a spy *is* blending in, after all. Plus, exploring these strange rooms... Yeah, he could find some nasty secrets like that. It wouldn't hurt to try. That's why he would do his best. Just because of this.

"Oh, I know what you mean! Our book..." He quickly glanced at the document on top of the table. "Is King Lear by Shakespeare. We all know that he was quite the romantic douche. So we need to go to the most romantic room possible."He smirked at Irene, who was too entertained to realize his second intentions.

"Kai, that's actually amazing. I think you missed the point just a little bit, but that's the right way." Her eyes were sparkling more now. "But perhaps it is some kind of word puzzle? That's the impression I got, at least. Maybe some kind of anagram with Lear, or we could..." She was talking so fast Kai knew it wasn't with him. She was thinking out loud at that point.

He took that chance to look around the room. Its walls were covered by plants, so the books stood inside closed shelves. Like aquariums. For books. Who even watered those plants? That looked like chaotic influence. The Library was in perfect equilibrium. So there is 50% chaos everywhere you go. It's just a little more... perceivable... in some places. He made a mental note to add that in his report.

"That has to be it!" She said smiling at him. That was her biggest smile ever since they began.

"Cute." He couldn't manage to hide it and said that under his breath.

"What?"

"You're cute." He watched as her face assumed a new color again. He messed her hair and pinched her nose, quickly enough so that she wouldn't be able to have any hostile reactions. He wasn't taking any chances. "Are you sure? Have you really figured it out?"

"Of course." She said getting up and already heading to the door. "That alternative is the only one in which all of the countries are ruled by kings. It is our best bet." She stopped to look at the map she had just printed. "And if I'm wrong, then we can check that romantic room you were talking about."

"But only if you're wrong?" He pretended to be offended and she laughed. For some reason, it was as if they had already known each other for ages.

The room Irene led them to was dark. Not because it was poorly illuminated. It resembled all the blood and supposedly honorable sacrifices made in order to maintain a monarchy. The walls looked as if they were made of gold, with red velvet cloths covering some parts of it. The books were all golden, and the shelves had intricate drawings on them. The statues around the place had horrifying expressions.

"Ok." She said after taking a look around. "Not creepy at all."

"Are you scared?" He asked teasingly, to what she answered with a firm head shake. "There's no shame in admitting fear, you know." He kept on smiling mischievously.

"I'm not. Let's split up and look for it, that way we will cover the place faster."

And so each went to a corner of the room. Kai, using the best of his spying skills, sneaked behind a statue and peeked at Irene. She was doing exactly the same thing, trying to scare him, except that he had done it faster.

He walked to her in the most silent way possible, and soon he was right behind her. The poor prey looked through the books still searching for him.

When she started to turn, he grabbed her hips and shook her whole body. She let out a small scream and stumbled on the bookshelf. Some of the books started falling, and after looking up, Kai realized that all of them would do a suicide mission within the next few seconds. Not on the plan. He hugged her and crouched, letting all the missiles hit his back.

When the last book fell, she was sitting on his lap, completely involved in his arms. He slowly loosened the grip to look at her.

"Are you okay?" He asked, not being able to contain his laughter at her expression.

"I could be better." Irene was a mix of emotions. I mean, sure, she was trying to do the same thing to him, but that didn't excuse his actions. And now, they were so close she could hear both of their accelerated heartbeats.

"Are you sure?" He leaned a little forward, his breath tickling the top of her head. "You're not hurt anywhere?" He looked down at her, trying to find any scratches on her face.

"I'm fine, really. I would thank you for saving me, hadn't you been the one to blame for my getting in danger in the first place." She tried to sound serious, but even she had to admit that that had been funny.

"Alright, miss." He got up and helped her up as well. They analyzed the mess they'd made for some time. "Are there people who organize these books or can we just let them there and they'll magically return to their place?"

"Someone's gonna be pissed." She sighed. "Let's organize this. We can look for the book this way, too."

And so they started picking up all the books and putting them back on the shelves. No one was saying anything, but it was pleasant nonetheless. Kai was just happy to be by her side. She was a pretty funny lady. And yet, there he was, betraying her.

No. That wasn't it. He was just... Collecting information. That's what librarians do, too, in all the worlds they visit. It's not that different.

"Kai!" She shouted his name, shocked. "It's this one! Look! It even has a note inside!" She showed him the first page of the book, and there laid a note saying 'You found me!'. "We did it!" She was smiling so much it was contagious. He laughed and started clapping.

"You are an outstanding agent, Irene. You did a great job."

"We did a great job." She emphasized the pronoun. "We are an incredible duo, in all honesty. The other pairs never stood a chance."

It was almost evening by the time they were heading back. They hadn't started early morning, so it had probably taken them 4 hours or so to complete their quest. It was almost unbelievable how close they had become after such a small period of time.

They passed through a long corridor full of windows, showing off a beautiful sunset. Irene admired it a little bit, before averting her gaze to somewhere equally pleasing to the eyes. Kai's features were almost angelical, she noted, and he walked like a model wearing boots made of clouds. Whatever that meant. All of his clothes were black, giving his skin a sweet contrast. He seemed to be lost in thought, as he was frowning and his lips were tightly shut. His lips. Shut. Tightly. Very sweet lips. That's what they looked like, at least. She didn't know. There was only one way to find out.

Irene forced herself to look forward, moving these thoughts away. How unprofessional. He most certainly wasn't even thinking about her.

Well. He was thinking about a lot of things. What would happen after he finished the training? Would he become an apprentice? For how long would his father ask him to continue? He was very fond of books, so it wasn't so boring spying The Library. But now he started to feel bad about it. He was keeping a secret from her. A huge one. And if he slipped, he would very likely lose the only friend he had managed to make.  
He didn't want to lose her.


End file.
